Saturday, 5 September 2015

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar announces the grant of OROP on Saturday in New Delhi

By Ajai Shukla

Business Standard, 5th Sept 15

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar addressed
a packed press conference in New Delhi on Saturday to announce the government’s
acceptance of OROP. Stating, “the government of India respects its armed forces
and ex-servicemen”, Parrikar said OROP would be implemented with effect from
July 1, 2014 and would cost the government Rs 18,000-22,000 crore this year.

The government has committed to pay Rs
10,000-12,000 crore as arrears, and another Rs 8,000-10,000 crore towards this
year’s enhanced pensions. With the central budget having allocated Rs 54,500
crore for military pensions this year, actual spending on defence pensions
would now rise to Rs 72,500-76,500 crore.

Parrikar said, “In simple terms, OROP
implies that uniform pension be paid to the armed forces personnel retiring in
the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of
retirement. Future enhancements in the rates of pension would be automatically
passed on to the past pensioners.”

However, former soldiers, sailors and
airmen who have staged an almost three-month public agitation for their demand
of “one rank, one pension” (OROP) took just minutes to reject most of the
government’s offer, which failed to meet key demands.

Ex-servicemen agitation leaders in New
Delhi expressed particular unhappiness about the exclusion from OROP of those
who take premature retirement (PMR) before reaching the age of superannuation
from service. When a delegation of agitation leaders conveyed this to Parrikar
soon after his announcement, the defence minister quickly addressed their
concerns, providing an assurance that even soldiers who took PMR would be
granted OROP.

General Satbir Singh, who heads the Indian
Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) agreed to withdraw the fast-unto-death of
ex-servicemen, subject to the latest decision being given in writing. However,
he said the larger agitation would continue until all the demands of the
agitation are met.

According to the government’s OROP award,
there will now be dynamic and continually rising pension scales for
ex-servicemen, since pay commissions invariably raise military salaries and,
therefore, pensions of the beneficiaries when they retire.

“This implies bridging the gap between the
rate of pension of current and past pensioners at periodic intervals”, said
Parrikar. “It has been decided that the gap between rate of pension of current
pensioners and past pensioners will be bridged every five years”.

The ex-servicemen groups have flatly
rejected this. General Satbir told Business Standard that pensioners cannot
wait five years for parity in pensions. Instead, pensions should be adjusted
(equalised) every year.

Indicating that the ex-servicemen’s vote
bank has acquired a new salience, Parrikar issued a detailed critique of the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which, like other governments for
the preceding four decades, had “remained ambivalent” on OROP. He said the
complexity of OROP was why the National Democratic Alliance government had
taken so long to announce its implementation.

“In February 2014, the then government
stated that OROP would be implemented in 2014-15, but did not specify what OROP
would be, how it would be implemented or how much it would cost. An estimated
Rs 500 crore provided for OROP in the budget presented in February 2014 was not
based on any thorough analysis. It is pertinent to mention that the then
minister of state for defence in 2009 had, in reply to a question, informed
Parliament that there are administrative, technical and financial difficulties
in implementing OROP. It is for these reasons that the present government took
some time to fulfil its promise.”

Talking to Business Standard after the
announcement, Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh said, “The
government has taken a decision that this is what we can give them (the
ex-servicemen). It will now be put to them and one can only hope that saner
elements amongst them will prevail.”

================

Basic
features of OROP grant

OROP granted with effect from July 1, 2014

Arrears to be paid in four half-yearly
instalments

Widows of casualties to be paid in single
instalments

OROP will increase annual pension bill by
Rs 10,000 crore

This amount will rise in the future in
tandem with military salaries

Arrears will involve a one-time payment of
Rs 12,000 crore

Pensions will be equalised and adjusted for
OROP once every five years

Pensions to be the average of maximum and
minimum pension paid in 2013

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Another win for the IAS political class. Once again they have let down the people who risk their lives to protect us. Why should anybody be a soldier in our country if we cant even honour them and treat them fairly

The govt. intention to be largest creator of jobs will be unsustainable. No second thought on respect defence personals and giving them their due right. However, Govt. should work on reducing the number of armed force personals: unmanned combat Autonomous vehicles (Air , Land and Water). The govt should use its human resources in R&D and innovative industry. give the citizens its birth right - clean air, water, land and opportunities.

Hello Ajai. Could you please give an update on the HTT-40 and how far has HAL progressed with it.You had mentioned there are plans to weaponize it. Also recently there are news that IAF has completely rejected the IJT and is going for US Scorpene aircraft as appeared in financial express.

I have been an avid followed of your blog for quite some time now. However, i guess from an independent blog that you initially had, last few months I have noticed you taking sides of certain vendors/ firms (actually quite evident). In addition, your views have become slightly biased on issues which might be due to the compulsions of the channels that you are primarily subscribed to.Hope you could revert back to normal..until then.. no more regular following of your blog.

This is a great day for all Veterans ! This Govt. has done more for ex-servicemen that previous four govt. combined. It is not perfect but happy that people in positions of power finally showed the courage to pass this landmark resolution.

I think the time has come when it is not only just OROP but the real / root cause.Unless we as one family including those in service take the matter to the hilt, this disparity will rebound back in some other form/ disguise.e.g .. what use of just equalizing the salary / pay bands when 16 yrs Secretary will draw the same pay an old Maj Gen will with 32 yrs service and that too only 1% of it.